Everyone knows A5 mercs are amazing, but Rogues need love too. So I thought I'd test some different setups to see how well they might handle themselves.

Here, I'll upload some demo videos of my Rogue Ranger using different gear combinations (mostly, just stuff I have on hand). She'll be taking the lead here, clearing areas herself, with my Sorc only providing backup via Familiars, Ice Elementals, and Firedance. The testing grounds will most likely be D-Cows, but I may move on to more difficult areas depending on how well she does (Fauzt, anyone?).

Also, please note that I'm not claiming anything here as my own original idea. Considering how long this mod has been out, and the number of people who've been playing it over the years, it stands to reason that all this has been tested to death. So consider these more as demonstration videos than anything (h/t UncleGrimjerk for pointing this out). Now let's get to it.

D-Cows Trials:Clear the level as fast as possible.

Fauztinville Trials:Clear the way to Alpha as fast as possible. Put on hold indefinitely. Fauzt is just way too laggy and recording videos for it is boring af.

Poison

► D-Cows

Here, the focus was on high initial damage in order to get

Shockwave

ShockwaveBows'Sol'Runeword Level: 27100% Chance to cast level 16 Punisher when you Kill an Enemy+(58 to 72)% Enhanced damage+(11 to 15) to Maximum Damage+3% to Poison Spell Damage(6 to 8)% Chance of Crushing BlowSlows Target by (11 to 15)%+(21 to 40) to Dexterity+(21 to 40) to Energy

's Punishers proccing. After that, I just used some SU gear I had on hand to increase Poison spell damage/Poison pierce for stronger Punishers, as well as increased %DR to make up for low defense. There's also some %CB and %Slow gear and %LL crafted jewels thrown in for good measure.

Note: none of the gear (except bow and ammy) had been luckied/lotteried/orbed.

I think some of the SUs could be replaced with Shrine-crafts, but it's a start. All in all, it took about 7 minutes for a full clear (not bad for her first try), but with better merc positioning and enemy leading (and better gear), the clear speed could definitely be improved.

is really fun, but with Apocalypse and Sacrifices constantly proccing, as well as a screen full of Flamefront-spamming Deathfire Bearers, the framerate drops so low (consistent 3-4 fps) it often makes the game unplayable. Ultimately,

was used for Flamefront on striking and the Philios reanimate. This setup also took about 7 minutes to clear the area, but as with the Poison setup, leading the enemies into Philios' Phalanx would speed things up.

seems like a good choice for body armor, but most of the other pieces could've probably been replaced with crafts. Again, none of the gear, except bow and ammy, had been luckied/lotteried/orbed. +FSD/LL crafted jewels were used as socket-fillers.

was actually my first choice, but all the Landshark reanimates made things way too laggy, so I settled on

Coat of Darkness

Coat of DarknessHard Leather Armor (Sacred)Defense: (5354-6012) to (5690-6392)Required Strength: 729Required Level: 100+(0 to 1) to All Skills-(7 to 18)% to All Enemy Resistances+(15 to 30)% to Spell Damage+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense+300 Defense+(50 to 75) to Energy+(1.25 per level) to Life (Based on Character Level)+250 Maximum Stamina+25 Life after each Kill-5 to Light RadiusRequirements +50%Socketed (6)

. This time, the helm and boots were orbed (being crafts), as well as the bow and ammy. +CSD/LL crafted jewels were used as socket-fillers (mostly).

The last of the pure, single-element setups. Without other procs and comparatively low bow damage, the focus here was on beefing up Forked Lighting with a combination of +LSD, -ELR, and +Skills. As usual, +LSD/LL crafted jewels were used as socket fillers and only the bow and ammy were orbed.

There really weren't many options here. Only two bows seemed worthwhile,

. And since I didn't have Gjallarhorn, there was really only one choice. Forked Lightning's limited range made clearing a bit slower, but the Lycander reanimate helped greatly (though Phalanx did cause some lag). If you include the time it took to double-back and pick off a few stragglers, the area took aroud 6-7 minutes to clear.

For other gear, I went back to full SUs, as the combination of +spell damage, +skills, and some Strength Factor to Spell Damage boosted Forked Lightning's damage a bit more than full crafts or adding more Strength Factor gear. Also, the extra EWD from

Coat of DarknessHard Leather Armor (Sacred)Defense: (5354-6012) to (5690-6392)Required Strength: 729Required Level: 100+(0 to 1) to All Skills-(7 to 18)% to All Enemy Resistances+(15 to 30)% to Spell Damage+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense+300 Defense+(50 to 75) to Energy+(1.25 per level) to Life (Based on Character Level)+250 Maximum Stamina+25 Life after each Kill-5 to Light RadiusRequirements +50%Socketed (6)

This time, rather than focusing on procs/spell damage, I decided to try stacking as much flat Fire/Cold/Lightning damage and elemental pierce as I could. Can these three elements put aside their differences and work together to defeat a common foe? Find out in today's “exciting” episode!

certainly had it's advantages, but in the end, Stardust was just faster—even without the extra %CB. That said, while Meteor Shower and Singularity were devastating, their low chance to proc made them too unreliable to be effective.

There wasn't much to choose from when it came to other gear. I probably could've replaced

for more pierce, but I didn't really want to put in the work. And since I didn't have any gloves that really stood out, I just used some ZOMG Strength-crafts orbed with F/C/L pierce. Socket-fillers were just a bunch of

In the end, her clear speed wasn't spectacular—averaging a little more than 7 minutes (though it felt like longer). I think the lack of good procs hurt. Nevertheless, she did have the highest weapon damage and life pool, as well as the second highest %DR so far. It could be a decent support setup for single-element and/or physical-based characters.

A lack of elemental damage won't stop this rough-and-tumble gal. As requested, this one's a pure Physical-based setup focusing on %CB, EWD, and Deadly Strike, with Shower of Rocks batting cleanup.

For the bow, I went with Strength-craft+bless rather than a Dex-craft for more %CB and +STR/%STR (though, sadly, I got none of the latter). More %CB is obvious, but more STR would not only have eased the burden of heavier gear, but made the STR damage bonus added by Larzuk's Round Shot UMO more effective. It was a decent enough craft, but some extra added damage would've been nice. For the remaining MO space, I used 2 Vizjun's Ball Bearing UMOs for Deadly Strike and a bit more DEX (the bow already had 335% ED, brought up to 350% ED by the Oil of Luck, and I got plenty of EWD from other gear).

And speaking of other gear, again the focus was on anything that would enhance the Rogue's Physical damage (i.e. %CB, EWD, added flad damage, etc.). I thought about using

I've considered making a guide to mercs for about a year now. Just haven't sat down to do it. But i'll be the first to tell you, while barb merc may be strong, his AI will be his downfall.

You gear an Abjurer to the teeth, with buff/ debuff duration, lightning damage/ enemy res stacked, and the sorcs +skill aura from summons, he can easily outperform the barb in certain areas. And he's the only merc i've ever had who could solo Dest Baal.

Do it. Seriously. I'd love to see a full-on merc guide, and I guarantee I'm not the only one. Even better if you can show how an A3 merc can be great, since--outside a few builds that use him just for LC1--IDK if anyone really uses them.

It seems like if ppl are using mercs, it's almost always an A2 or A5. I've always used Rogues, but I tried an A5 this ladder and you're right about him being dumb as a box of rocks.

Heathen wrote:I've considered making a guide to mercs for about a year now. Just haven't sat down to do it. But i'll be the first to tell you, while barb merc may be strong, his AI will be his downfall.

You gear an Abjurer to the teeth, with buff/ debuff duration, lightning damage/ enemy res stacked, and the sorcs +skill aura from summons, he can easily outperform the barb in certain areas. And he's the only merc i've ever had who could solo Dest Baal.

, some other shit that I can't remember now. Super tanky, super strong, especially in superbeast form. Back when I didn't know a whole lot about crafting, it was really nice, and I'm sure even better with crafts than honorifics and shit gear. His Forked Lightning used to clear Tran no problem for me, and 3-shot DBaal, along with clearing shardspawns at the same time. People make the case for Bloodmage because of pyroblast and how absurdly strong that is, but I always preferred the Abjurer because superbeast, piercing spells, and singularity is very strong too, since he can cast it at a target point, unlike the sin skill which casts at your feet. (plz sigma fix that, maybe?)

Edit: Not to mention, there's quite a few items that boost Lightning and Phys/Magic spell damage together, so you won't need different items to cover both aspects.